Late Comics Icon Len Wein To Receive WGA West Animation Award

Len Wein, the late comic book co-creator of Marvel’s Wolverine and DC Swamp Thing who also served as an animation writer for TV, will receive the Writers Guild of America West’s 2017 Animation Writers Caucus Animation Writing Award. The ceremony is tonight at the WGA’s Los Angeles headquarters.

Wein worked on classic superhero comics from Batman and Superman to Spider-Man, Thor, Daredevil, and the Justice League. He also served as editor of Alan Moore’s seminal Watchmen comic book series. His TV animation credits include Kong: The Animated Series, Hypernauts, Wild Card, Pocket Dragon Adventures, ReBoot and War Planets: Shadow Raiders, and series featuring the X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man, Street Fighter and Godzilla.

“There are few writers in our industry whose work has made such a lasting impact as Len Wein,” said WGAW President David A. Goodman. “The current spate of superhero movies and television shows were not only inspired by Len’s work in comics and animation, but amazingly continue to rely on his old scripts for material. I think one of the secrets to the longevity of his creations, such as Wolverine and the X-Men, was that to anyone reading or watching his work, you knew the writing came from a place of joy and love for the characters and stories he created.”

The WGAW’s AWC Animation Writing Award is given to members of the Animation Writers Caucus or guild who have “advanced the literature of animation in film and television throughout the years and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the animation writer,” the WGA says. Previous honorees include Mike Judge, Seth MacFarlane, Sam Simon, Linda Woolverton, Len Uhley, Brad Bird, Matt Groening, Al Jean & Mike Reiss, Dwayne McDuffie and Earl Kress, Mike Scully, Patric M. Verrone and Stan Berkowitz.